PMQs verdict – Crime doesn’t pay

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

This was something of an open goal for Ed Miliband. With Ken Clarke’s outrageous interview this morning – and his subsequent car crashes on Sky News and BBC News – crime was always going to be the main event at PMQs, and Ed Miliband landed some wounding blows on the PM.

Often Ed has a tendency to overstate a question, but today when he can have had little time to prepare his remarks he was sharp, to the point and firm. This was not a PMQs laden with sarcasm, awful jokes and puns. This was, for once, a serious debate about a breaking news story that will damage this government.

Miliband was right to call for Clarke to go. That will play on the news broadcasts throughout today. If Clarke goes then Miliband’s call will have been heeded. If Clarke somehow manages to cling on then the cries of “resign” will still be ringing in his ears for days to come. Each interview from Clarke digs the hole a little deeper.

The PM didn’t exactly give Clarke a vote of confidence. Choosing to adopt what might be called the “Arsene Wenger defence”, he claimed that he hadn’t seen the incident. I’m more than happy to believe that Cameron hasn’t seen all of Clarke’s TV and radio appearances. But surely he’s aware of some of the standout comments – “classic rape” to name but one – that elevate this from gaffe to complete and utter rolling news car crash disaster. To claim otherwise simply isn’t credible. The PM clearly realised this himself. The unpleasantness of the situation was written all over his face. He got angry and flailed and shouted like usual, but he wanted the ground to swallow him whole. Ed Miliband was winning – easily – and the PM hates that.

What will be most concerning for the Prime Minister won’t be the fate of the Justice Secretary though – Clarke is no Cameroon and won’t be missed by the PM. The real concern will be how easily Clarke’s comments tie into a wider narrative – that the Tories are sift on crime. They have made huge police cuts, and now they’re offering “discounts” (a legal term but a presentational nightmare) to rapists. It’s an awful state of affairs for them to find themselves in, and you can see the reaction from the testy Tory right flank already. Cameron really didn’t need this headache today. What an utter disaster for the Prime Minister.

For him and his party, it seems that crime doesn’t pay.